[sf-lug] Apache & UBU configurations

[Eric W. Rasmussen]

Hello all.  I am new to the sf-lug group and plan on attending the 
Sunday meetings.  Mondays don't work for me because of the times (6-8).  
I wouldn't call myself a beginner to Linux as I have played around with 
it since my first Mandrake install back in 2003.  Casual user, yes.  I 
have now migrated 100% to Ubuntu and virtualized Win7 and OSX for 
specific tasks.  Of coarse, not everything works flawlessly, but I know 
that I can modify as time goes on.  Anyway, down to business.

I am running an Asus laptop with an i5 Intel, 8Gb RAM, and 640Gb HDD. 
This machine is exclusively for personal use... no other users.

1st.  What size do you think my SWAP should be and at what priority?  
Note that I am also vm'ing OSX and WIN7 with 2Gb RAM each and sometimes 
simultaneously.  I don't hibernate so I was thinking that 2Gb with a 
[vm.swappiness=10] would be fine.  Thoughts?

2nd. What size should my /root partition be?  It looks like I am at 
4.5Gb of 15Gb as I speak.  Maybe the following question might bring some 
clarity to my goals.

3rd. I need to run a LAMP server for local web development.  Under Win 
this was easy using WAMP2.  But under Linux I am seeing that working 
with the /var/www/ directory is kind of a pain.  I have read that I 
might want to install a separate partition for /var. If so, what is a 
good size for multiple sites (I was thinking 10Gb). If I could have a 
/home/user/www directory so that read/write permissions aren't a problem 
and it is easily accessible, that would be even better.  Thoughts?

4th.  I hate trackpads on laptops and this is why I run with my external 
mouse.  Under Win, I could set the trackpad off whenever an external was 
plugged in.  Not so under Linux. I put this command [xinput set-int-prop 
"ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" "Device Enabled" 8 0] in my startup 
applications but it isn't activating.  I am getting tired of manually 
running the command every time I boot.  Thoughts?

OK.  That's it for right now.  Any help will be returned.  Hope everyone 
has a great weekend.

Eric W. Rasmussen